Tesla is an AWFUL software company

[TheLocNar]

One embarrassing thing is having passengers and all the cars on the screen keep spazzing while you’re at a stop light.

 

[Jigglypuff]

One embarrassing thing is having passengers and all the cars on the screen keep spazzing while you’re at a stop light.

Yes, my #2.

 

[ChopinBlues]

I agree with the original premise, which is that Tesla has been doing a poor job with software lately, but your examples are not the best, as most of them have to do with U/I, which is not quite the same thing, although I would agree that the U/I is at best awkward.

The general problems I've observed are related to changing settings, and then not having them take affect, like the folding of the mirrors, or especially the various HomeLink settings, or just plain bugs, which should have been caught, or were perhaps just ignored.

The other day, I was getting into the car, while my wife was in the house on a phone call. The minute I closed the door, her phone call was suddenly in the car, instead of on her phone, and I had my phone in my pocket -- no excuse for this sort of bug in what is clearly a mature feature.

But my biggest complaint is the dashcam, where the issue is not bugs, but design choices. Only one hour of recording? why? But that's the least of it; the dumbest thing by far is that the video clips start to disappear after you park, and in hour, they're gone! There is no rational earthly reason for doing that.

But here's the worst one by far: the Tesla app has to be running in the background on your phone in order for it to unlock your car. Really? C'mon, this requires purely Bluetooth functionality, that's all. And this is actually a safety issue, if, like my wife, you get off work after dark, and your car is in a dark, deserted parking lot, and suddenly won't unlock.

 

[angus[Y]oung]

But here's the worst one by far: the Tesla app has to be running in the background on your phone in order for it to unlock your car. Really? C'mon, this requires purely Bluetooth functionality, that's all. And this is actually a safety issue, if, like my wife, you get off work after dark, and your car is in a dark, deserted parking lot, and suddenly won't unlock.

@ChopinBlues well you're probably going to call me a Tesla apologist again (like with previous discussion around dash cam) but to be fair, unlocking your car via Bluetooth is different than reconnecting a pair of headphones. (And in fact, the car uses a totally separate connection to your phone for calls/media.) The car needs to be able to authenticate you, and it does that via the app. I'm reasonably sure that other cars with phone-as-a-key functionality also require the app for the authentication, but maybe you know of examples of some that only require a bluetooth connection?

That said, I understand the frustration, and this does happen to both my better half and I from time to time. You'll likely call this an unreasonable suggestion but if your wife is getting off work after dark and your car is in a dark, deserted parking lot, what I would suggest she get in the habit of doing is opening the app on her phone while still insider her lit place of work and leaving it up before walking out the door into the lot. With the app definitely open and a phone in her hand the chance of not being able to get in is minimal.

EDIT: yes, in an ideal world this would not be required. Another option would be to spring for a key fob, which should work passively even more reliably than the phone as a key.

 

[Sruckus]

I will say I had my first drive at night in the rain tonight and sometimes without me intervening there would be rain all over the windshield and it wouldn’t even run the wipers. The auto brights blinded a driver and other times would just deactivate until I manually turned them back on.

Tons or warnings of the camera on left pillar being covered like I could fix it. Is it not expected to ever rain? Not everywhere is California.

My Audi for all its faults was perfect for the rain sensing wipers.

Frustrating.

 

[queenamydala]

Windows 10 is significantly easier to use than OS X now.

Yeah, you lost all credibility with me on this comment.

There are legions of desktop support people out there that will disagree with you on that one.

 

[apacheguy]

1. I can't get rid of the visualization. It takes up the most visible part of the display, distracting me as I drive.

Model 3 owner since May 2018. I love the software updates and they have brought much needed functionality (e.g., dashcam, side collision avoidance, etc.) but yeah, I totally agree on this one. I despise how the useless driving visualization takes up so much screen.

 

[_Redshift_]

The voice control is laughable. I told it to switch to the radio and it gave me navigation directions to a local radio station. I asked it for directions to the Marriot and it gave me directions to the Marriot Theater in Illinois. I am not particularly close to Illinois. All voice control is laughable, but Tesla's is particularly bad. I hate to say it, but the best I've used so far is Alexa, which is far better than Google, which is far better than Tesla.

I myself have always thought Tesla’s software engineers are actually pretty mediocre. The UI just about sucks, I’d have fired the team that worked on the Model 3 long ago.

My 2013 Model S, OTOH still feels good, with steering wheel controls for many tasks.

that aside, I was with you till this last post.

Tesla voice control is one of the best. Better than Siri, which may not be saying much, but having experience with many voice command systems, I find Model 3’s to be snappy, and accurate in most circumstances.

 

[_Redshift_]

Tesla suffers from all the problems of the rest of the modern software/tech industry. Particularly relevant here are: shipping incomplete/broken products and 'fixing' them with OTA updates, arbitrary UI changes to 'keep it fresh' (but actually just pissing off a bunch of your owners), too much (unchallenged) product decision-making from the top, seemingly no usability testing, and trying to maintain an iron grip on their products after sale (hence fighting right-to-repair).

Minimalism is great as a guiding design/engendering principle, but there are clearly ways to drastically overdo it. I would say Tesla went about 10% too far with the minimalism in the Model 3/Y (mostly with the horrible wiper controls), but unfortunately have probably gone about 60% too far with the refreshed S. How do I know they are either not doing usability testing or not listening to the testing they are doing? Because they would not be shipping products and software with so many bone-headed design elements (especially in the last 10 months) if they were.

To give some balance though, at least on the software Tesla is still better than most/all of the OEMs in overall quality and design. But that is an incredibly low bar frankly. And they are still trying to solve a lot of problems with software that would be far better off done in a dumb hardware way. That is the Silicon Valley way though unfortunately.

100% agreed. I’ve been saying for a long time that Tesla went too far with their cost cutting on the 3/Y.

They have made some serious missteps, actually.

However, the 3 is a fantastic driver’s car. After I’ve added extensive noise insulation by taking out all the seats and carpet, etc and switching to Pirelli Cinturatos, and reducing tire pressures to 37 PSI to soften the jitteriness of the stock suspension, the rough edges of the car have been a bit more smoothened out now.

I have been looking for a new electric car to replace my aging 2013 S, but I’m more and more intrigued by the new Lucid Air. If the final specs are close to what’s being touted, I’d be seriously tempted to switch to Lucid for my next purchase.
It’s more efficient, more luxurious inside, lighter (which makes for sportier driving), and hopefully has better ergonomics.

 

[RSpanner]

100% agreed. I’ve been saying for a long time that Tesla went too far with their cost cutting on the 3/Y.

They have made some serious missteps, actually.

However, the 3 is a fantastic driver’s car. After I’ve added extensive noise insulation by taking out all the seats and carpet, etc and switching to Pirelli Cinturatos, and reducing tire pressures to 37 PSI to soften the jitteriness of the stock suspension, the rough edges of the car have been a bit more smoothened out now.

I have been looking for a new electric car to replace my aging 2013 S, but I’m more and more intrigued by the new Lucid Air. If the final specs are close to what’s being touted, I’d be seriously tempted to switch to Lucid for my next purchase.
It’s more efficient, more luxurious inside, lighter (which makes for sportier driving), and hopefully has better ergonomics.

Just a peon I suppose I am. Will never be able to get a Lucid, am fine with the 3.

 

[_Redshift_]

Just a peon I suppose I am. Will never be able to get a Lucid, am fine with the 3.

Never say never!

 

[smogne41]

100% agreed. I’ve been saying for a long time that Tesla went too far with their cost cutting on the 3/Y.

They have made some serious missteps, actually.

However, the 3 is a fantastic driver’s car. After I’ve added extensive noise insulation by taking out all the seats and carpet, etc and switching to Pirelli Cinturatos, and reducing tire pressures to 37 PSI to soften the jitteriness of the stock suspension, the rough edges of the car have been a bit more smoothened out now.

I have been looking for a new electric car to replace my aging 2013 S, but I’m more and more intrigued by the new Lucid Air. If the final specs are close to what’s being touted, I’d be seriously tempted to switch to Lucid for my next purchase.
It’s more efficient, more luxurious inside, lighter (which makes for sportier driving), and hopefully has better ergonomics.

I really hope Lucid is successful (and eventually makes a car in the same segment as the Model 3). Their overall design taste much more aligns with my own. Hell, even if they just continue to offer stalks and a steering wheel it is a huge step up over Tesla

 

[_Redshift_]

I really hope Lucid is successful (and eventually makes a car in the same segment as the Model 3). Their overall design taste much more aligns with my own. Hell, even if they just continue to offer stalks and a steering wheel it is a huge step up over Tesla

Yeah, I have both a 2013 S and a 2018 3. I much prefer the S controls. One of my biggest peeves about the 3’s steering wheel controls is the right side scroll wheel/button. Unless you are using the AP it’s “there, along for the ride”.

Pretty dumb execution, really.

 

[damonbrodie]

The other day, I was getting into the car, while my wife was in the house on a phone call. The minute I closed the door, her phone call was suddenly in the car, instead of on her phone, and I had my phone in my pocket -- no excuse for this sort of bug in what is clearly a mature feature.

Our Sante Fe does this too. Not at all unique to Tesla. We were able to work around it a bit by changing which person's phone was priority. This cut down the number of these types of events, but if the "priority" person is at home on the phone and somebody else starts the car you're going to hit this type of situation again. It's literally doing what you configured it to do, but not want you wanted it to do.

 

[Twiglett]

Our Sante Fe does this too. Not at all unique to Tesla. We were able to work around it a bit by changing which person's phone was priority. This cut down the number of these types of events, but if the "priority" person is at home on the phone and somebody else starts the car you're going to hit this type of situation again. It's literally doing what you configured it to do, but not want you wanted it to do.

profiles really help this too. You can set whose phone gets the BT connection on a per profile basis.
So now when I get in the car its my phone that connects not my wife's
The other thing is that the newer releases don't grab the phone until you hit the brake pedal - much better
Now the BT-phone interaction is better in my Tesla than any other car I've owned

 

[Sruckus]

I myself have always thought Tesla’s software engineers are actually pretty mediocre. The UI just about sucks, I’d have fired the team that worked on the Model 3 long ago.

My 2013 Model S, OTOH still feels good, with steering wheel controls for many tasks.

that aside, I was with you till this last post.

Tesla voice control is one of the best. Better than Siri, which may not be saying much, but having experience with many voice command systems, I find Model 3’s to be snappy, and accurate in most circumstances.

Well I was driving through a fog late last night and thought I’d try the voice command “turn on fog lights”. Instead, got a “not implemented”. Don’t see how that’s better than Siri. I thought they implemented every function via voice. It’s not like it’s an unlimited number of options :/

 

[Jigglypuff]

Yeah, you lost all credibility with me on this comment.

There are legions of desktop support people out there that will disagree with you on that one.

I'd assume 9 times the people using Mac OS means about 9 times the people needed for support. It may be more since the typical Mac user is a home user. Also I used to do desktop support for Macs, and I used to sell Macs. I also support my parents on their Macs. Well, Mom, since I convinced my dad to get an LG Gram. Mac people need lots and lots of support. Windows is much easier to deal with these days. 20 years ago, the situation was reversed.

 

[Jigglypuff]

I agree with the original premise, which is that Tesla has been doing a poor job with software lately, but your examples are not the best, as most of them have to do with U/I, which is not quite the same thing, although I would agree that the U/I is at best awkward.

The general problems I've observed are related to changing settings, and then not having them take affect, like the folding of the mirrors, or especially the various HomeLink settings, or just plain bugs, which should have been caught, or were perhaps just ignored.

The other day, I was getting into the car, while my wife was in the house on a phone call. The minute I closed the door, her phone call was suddenly in the car, instead of on her phone, and I had my phone in my pocket -- no excuse for this sort of bug in what is clearly a mature feature.

But my biggest complaint is the dashcam, where the issue is not bugs, but design choices. Only one hour of recording? why? But that's the least of it; the dumbest thing by far is that the video clips start to disappear after you park, and in hour, they're gone! There is no rational earthly reason for doing that.

But here's the worst one by far: the Tesla app has to be running in the background on your phone in order for it to unlock your car. Really? C'mon, this requires purely Bluetooth functionality, that's all. And this is actually a safety issue, if, like my wife, you get off work after dark, and your car is in a dark, deserted parking lot, and suddenly won't unlock.

The UI is what people deal with. The UI is horrid.

I haven't experienced settings not sticking.

The UI choices for the app and bluetooth are a bit odd. There is always the keycard, which I carry all the time on my phone. I'd rather have a tiny clicker key, though. One that will also present the driver's door from a button press. These Model Y door handles are awfully stupid.

 

[damonbrodie]

The UI is what people deal with. The UI is horrid.

I haven't experienced settings not sticking.

The UI choices for the app and bluetooth are a bit odd. There is always the keycard, which I carry all the time on my phone. I'd rather have a tiny clicker key, though. One that will also present the driver's door from a button press. These Model Y door handles are awfully stupid.

I'm struggling to understand why you own this car? The items you are complaining about would have been known to when you bought the car. The door handles? Come on!

 

[mark95476]

Own? You're being very presumptuous.

Many nicks complaining on TMC aren't owners and haven't even test driven a Tesla.

I'm struggling to understand why you own this car? The items you are complaining about would have been known to when you bought the car. The door handles? Come on!